EGG-PRODUCTION

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 151, 23 December 1921, Page 17

EGG-PRODUCTION

SIDE-LINE METHODS THE BEST.

With a more assured and cheaper food supply—at any rate as far as oats are concerned—and the restrictions placed on the Asiatic egg-pulp, there, is a good prospect of the flocks of the Dominion being increased, and the industry regaining its pre-war level of importance (states the report of the Agricultural Department). It will probably take another hatching season before cheap eggs may be looked for. As in the past, we must look to the small settler on the land to increase his flocks, and to feed and manage them in a proper manner. The fact of the low market value ruling for many lines of farm produce will necessarily tend towards more attention being given to*the despised hen-run. It will usually be found that the smaller the settler the greater is the number of birds kept pro rata, and tho better the attention they receive. Thus the greater the growth of small settlement the greater will the industry increase in-'im-portance. Poultry-keeping as a sideline, whether it be with the small farmer or tho suburban resident, is the surest and best means by which the industry can be built up. Poultry farming as a safe means of making a livelihood is all right in its- way, but if permanent success is to be attained the person in charge must have special qualifications, which fev^ individuals possess. It is safe to assume that if all, or even the majority, of the poultry stock in the Dominion was of the correct laying-type, and was fed and managed in a proper manner, the question of importing eggs would probably be unheard of. In view of this, the distribution of high-type laying stock, and a real live policy, of giving instruction in the managing of poultry on sound lines appear to be the great present-day essential.